book of the week

lies we tell

S Y N O P S I S

(as copied from the book)

Amelia Xu is dreading freshman year of college, especially facing her bad summer orientation hookup. And that's before a breakout of hate crimes starts threatening the students lives. The only way to get to the bottom of the mystery is to team up with the boy who crushed her pride, and catch the criminal--before someone is killed.

T H O U G H T S

Lies We Tell by LB_Jade first showed up in the 'Recommendations' list maybe, oh, two months ago? I was close to finishing Blackout by bateaux (which is also an amazing story you should check out), and being me, I started on a scavenger hunt for a next book to read without even finishing the former. Thankfully, this scavenger hunt was quickly resolved when I found Lies We Tell.

The first three things I look for in a book are as follows:

• nice cover

• attention-grabbing title

• interesting blurb

"Don't judge a book by it's cover" is a famous saying, but unfortunately one that I don't abide by. Sure, if your story fits the other two criteria, I might give it a chance, but in the end, it's the cover that attracts readers to your books. The cover of Lies We Tell was really pretty. It immediately grabbed my attention and made me click on the story.

Next step: the title. If you name your story something boring like, "I Licked a Rock" or "My Brother Murdered a Cow", chances are that your story isn't going to get that many views. Did Lies We Tell grab my attention? Definitely.

Then for the last category, an interesting blurb. It's usually here that authors mess up, and instead of a short, interesting blurb that makes readers go "I need to read this", they end up going with a long, boring, or confusing blurb that scares potential readers away. But LB_Jade? That blurb did anything but scare me away, and I knew I'd found the right book.

First impressions?

Well here's the tea: I probably cried enough tears to fill an entire swimming pool. I don't like to admit it, but listening to long speeches and reading wordy books makes me super emotional. And if I had to give out an award to the book that made me cry the most, it would definitely go to Lies We Tell.

Racism is, personally, a big deal for me. It's affected my friends, my family, and myself in many different ways, and I'm sure it's affected many readers as well. However, most stories about racism unfortunately only represent hate crimes against black people or people from the Middle East. These stories are impactful and inspiring, but it's frustrating how easily people forget how racism can also be aimed at Asians.

So when I realized that this story was about racism and hate crimes aimed not only at Middle Easterns or black people, but also at Asians, gays, Latinos, and Hispanics, I knew this story would be different from the rest.

And it was. This story wasn't about racist comments aimed at a single person. These hate crimes were bigger, and affected an awful lot of people in different ways. But I think it was because of those hate crimes that all these different groups of people were able to connect and fight, together, for a common cause.

But the book was equally focused on how these hate crimes, even if they weren't directed at them, affected the main characters.

It gave Chris the courage and drive to pursue the role of freshman representative.

It gave Olivia a chance to do what she's best at---making friends, and thereby playing a big role in uniting the school community.

And Amelia? These events turned the shy, I'd-rather-watch-Netflix-than-socialize girl into one that wore her heart on her sleeve and wasn't afraid to make her opinion known. In my opinion, Amelia's character development was one of the most inspirational parts of the book.

But there was one part in particular that really struck me, and, you guessed it, made me cry.

"The fact that the hate crimes had stopped for a week didn't mean the true culprit was caught. That the hatred was gone. It was just hiding behind the surface, biding its time to strike.

We were lying to ourselves, if we thought otherwise.

But no matter how tiny it seemed to be, there was still hope. There was still love.

(This line was cut out to prevent spoilers) We couldn't let the hate win.

Not today. Today we fight."

This passage was the last few paragraphs of the book. LB_Jade truly pulled it off by delivering these heartfelt words.

And she's right. Hatred is never truly gone. But neither is love.

And in the end, that's the only thing that matters.

•••

written by acciomii
edited by xohrats